


People Still Need to Laugh

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 01:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12354804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Ron talks to George about reopening the joke shop





	People Still Need to Laugh

The first thing Ron did once they all got back to England was go searching for George. He left Hermione, her newly refound parents, and Harry to his dad’s excited questioning about arrow-planes and headed for diagon alley. While most of the stores were no longer boarded up the whole place still had a rather abandoned feel to it and there were hardly any shoppers. Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, however, was still closed up and the lights in the apartment above it were all off. That didn’t fool Ron for a moment. 

He let himself in a back door and headed up the stairs that lead directly to what had been the twins living space. “George?”

“Busy.” Ron followed the sound into what had to be their work area, two benches side by side, tools and charts and rubble scattered across them both. George was sitting in the center of the room with the things Charlie had pulled out of his and Fred’s room in a pile in front of him. There was a box on either side of him but both of them were empty. “Said I was busy.”

“You can sort that stuff later. When did you eat last?” Ron stepped into the room and offered George a hand up. The pause as George stood up and contemplated the question was long enough to be an answer in and of itself. “Right, let’s go get food then.”

George let himself be dragged out of the building and down to one of the pubs that had reopened since news of the hogwarts battle had started spreading. The pub was just as deserted as the rest of the alley but that didn't bother either of them. They’d both agree that it felt fitting, the way the world seems to be waiting to be sure this time, but neither of them saud anything like that aloud. In fact neither of them spoke at all, except to order, until the waiter brought them their food. 

Three bites into his meat pie the words spilled out of Ron like he couldn’t hold them back anymore. “You’ve got to reopen.”

“Why?” George frowned down at his own still untouched pie. 

“Because…” Ron trailed off and looked out the window at the street that used to be so colourful and was now mostly shades of brown and grey. He’d never been much good at this part, the saying the right words part. So he started with the easiest reason. “Because Diagon Alley needs to be colourful again, our world needs the light your shop brought to it. Because you have a chance to make something good out of all of this and I believe you can do it.”

“It doesn’t, it’s too much.” George poked at the pie but still didn’t make any attempt to eat it.

“I’ll help, we can ask Lee, and Harry, and Hermione too. Ginny’ll help when she’s not in school I bet, and Dean and Seamus would too if we asked.” Ron said, his voice strengthening and his pie all but forgotten. “You can’t just sit in your workroom and let the shop die, it won’t help anyone at all that way.”

George was staring at him with an expression that was almost a frown except one corner of his mouth was twitching up, the closest he’d come to a smile in weeks. “When did you go and grow up without telling us?” 

“Sometime around the new year I think.” Ron shrugged one shoulder and tried not to let the inward flinch he’d had at ‘us’ show on his face.

“Huh.” George nodded and pulled out some money to drop on the table almost absentmindedly as he stood. “Let’s get started then before I change my mind.” 

Ron added coins from his pockets to make up the total and tip before following George out of the pub and back down the street. This time George fished a key out of his pocket and opened up the front door for them to go through. Ron flicked his wand to light the lamps all around the store and in seconds the world seemed full of colour again.

They started by restocking the front shelves, then Ron made note of what they were low on in the back and they headed up to the workroom. The pile of stuff stayed on the floor. Ron sat beside George at his workbench while George showed him how to make all the things they were low on. The sun had sunk low in the sky by the time they’d restocked everything so Ron spread his gangly limbs on the couch for the night.

The next morning when they opened the store a little witch came running in, no older than thirteen and dragging a stressed looking parent behind her. She stared up at George while Ron watched from the counter. “The war’s really over then? That fight at Hogwarts was the end of it?”

Her mum pursed her lips but Ron could see shining scars on the back of the girls hands and her mum said nothing. 

After a moment George nodded. “Yeah, all that’s left is the cleanup.”

The girl nodded her expression steady as she looked around. “These things saved so many of us last year, I’m glad they’ll be tools for laughter again.”

“Me too.” George nodded and pulled a trick wand down off the shelf and handed it to her. “Here, on the house for our first customer.”


End file.
